Saturday, 7.30pm (SA time), at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin is Redemption Day for nine Springboks whose last visit to the home of Irish rugby ended in humiliation. Can these 2022 Boks do it?
You bet they can, despite the bookmakers heavily favouring Ireland to win the first Test between the two nations in five years. I have the Boks to win by eight points in what is the highlight of an impressive weekend of international rugby that features France at home to Australia, Wales in Cardiff against the All Blacks and England hosting Argentina at Twickenham.
There have been some dark days in Springbok rugby in the professional era. The 53-3 defeat against England at Twickenham in 2002 ranks as my worst day, given I was part of the management back then. Equally the 52-16 home defeat to the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria in 2003. Jake White’s Boks in 2006 lost 49-0 to the Wallabies in Brisbane and Allister Coetzee’s Boks conceded back-to-back 50 pointers against the All Blacks in 2016 and 2017 respectively, losing 57-15 in Durban and then being blanked 57-0 in Albany, New Zealand.
The 38-3 defeat to Ireland in Dublin is right up there with those darkest of days, given the quality of Bok players who started the Test and the potential of those players introduced from the bench.
There is no recent international form to speak of when it comes to the two teams and even the URC is not an accurate gauge because 50% of the Bok match-day 23 don’t play in the URC.
A week is a long time in sport, but five years seems like a lifetime and earlier this week 2019 World Cup-winning lock Lood de Jager spoke of the pain of that defeat, but also of how much he and his teammates from that night have grown as international rugby players and people.
It was a night that can’t be erased for those nine Boks but it is a memory that can be softened with victory in Dublin on Saturday night. Ireland are ranked number one in the world, courtesy of their come from behind 2-1 series win against the All Blacks in New Zealand. It was the first time in Ireland’s history that they won a Test against the All Blacks in New Zealand and also a series.
The Boks comfortably dealt with the same All Blacks a few weeks later in Nelspruit but then imploded at Ellis Park to lose in the final few minutes. What both Ireland and the Boks showed is they could beat the All Blacks. They also both showed they were more than capable of getting it wrong and losing, as Ireland did in the first Test at Eden Park in Auckland.
There is no recent international form to speak of when it comes to the two teams and even the URC is not an accurate gauge because 50% of the Bok match-day 23 don’t play in the URC.
Jesse Kriel, Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, De Jager, Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit started that 38-3 defeat. Bongi Mbonambi and Steven Kitshoff were among the substitutes. None of those players were World Cup winners on that dark night in Dublin in 2017, but in 2022 they return as champions, desperate to showcase their maturity and evolution as world-class players and exorcise those ghosts of 2017. I am backing them to do just that and be influential in the Boks beating Ireland.
Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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